


Wish

by Skylark, Swiftling (Skylark)



Series: SASO 2015 [4]
Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Anime Spoilers, F/F, Fortune Telling, Friends to Lovers, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Tarot, implied child neglect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2018-04-14 17:17:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4572963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylark/pseuds/Skylark, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylark/pseuds/Swiftling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Do we need one?" Nozomi asked. Shooting stars brought good fortune, but as far as she was concerned, their lives were blessed enough.</p><p>Her mother's mouth twisted, speculative. "I hope not," was all she said.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wish

**Author's Note:**

> [Prompt:](https://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/4049.html?thread=513745#cmt513745) _"You're my daytime shooting star." —hirunaka no ryuusei_
> 
> (Nozomi means "wish.")

Every woman in Nozomi's family had a different specialization. Her great-grandmother summoned spirits. Her grandmother read the messages in fire. Nozomi's specialty, of course, was tarot cards.  
  
Her mother's power lay in reading the stars. It was her mother who named her: wishes and stars went hand in hand, after all. Her mother used to haunt the temple rooftop, sure-footed on the pantiles as she scanned the night sky. In the daytime, too, her gaze would drift upward.  
  
"What are you looking for?" Nozomi asked once.  
  
Her mother hummed, eyes skipping past the white clouds to the flat blue beyond. "Shooting stars," she murmured. "If I concentrate I can kind of—feel them, in the second before they vanish."  
  
"Do we need one?" Nozomi asked. Shooting stars brought good fortune, but as far as she was concerned, their lives were blessed enough.  
  
Her mother's mouth twisted, speculative. "I hope not," was all she said.  
  
Nozomi wished she could say that she was surprised when her mother and father left her in Tokyo, but she wasn't. Her mother was always gazing into the distance, and her father was rarely home; it never felt like they were totally there anyway.  
  
\---  
  
When she did her daily readings, the seventeeth major arcana card always popped up.  _The Star._    
  
One day it moved from the sixth position to the fifth—from a future influence to a present force. The next day a new girl transferred into her class. Star-gold sunlight streamed in from the classroom window, and Nozomi felt her spine straighten with a strange feeling of relief, as if she were newly slotted into place.  _There,_  she heard her mother's voice say.  _A daytime shooting star._  
  
\---  
  
When Eli's back was turned, Nozomi slipped the tarot card into the folder she'd been flipping through.   
  
When Eli opened the folder again and saw the new addition, she glanced at Nozomi. Nozomi smiled back, serene. Eli's movements were impatient but gentle as she lifted the card from the papers and set it down on the desk.  
  
Eli found the card again when she opened her textbook, preparing for their third period class; again when she opened her bag to take out her lunch; again when she unfolded her gym t-shirt; again when she pulled her shoes from her locker at the end of the day.  
  
"You should be more careful," Eli said, handing the card back to Nozomi. She tried to sound stern, but whenever she looked at Nozomi her frown never stayed for long, and this was no exception. "What if someone had seen you placing something in my locker?"  
  
Nozomi shrugged, all innocence. "It wasn't me," she said. "The cards have a mind of their own. They're trying to tell you something."  
  
Eli raised an unimpressed eyebrow, and Nozomi tucked  _The Star_  back into her deck's protective pouch.  
  
"Those girls are waiting for you," Nozomi said, softer.  
  
Eli bristled, but her expression was tired, edged with wistfulness. They'd had this same conversation a hundred times before. "I can't do anything for them."  
  
"You can," Nozomi replied, her fingers running along the worn-soft edges of her tarot cards, "but more importantly, they can do something for you."  
  
\---  
  
Eli's skin glistened with sweat, warm and pink from exertion and the hot stage lights. Her face was alight with joy as she gazed across the cheering audience. Beside her, Nozomi stood in her proper place—to the right of the leader and slightly behind her, a wish trailing after her star's blazing path.  
  
Eli squeezed her fingers, lifting their linked hands into the air. Smiling, Nozomi squeezed back.


End file.
